142 Constructed Black

My name is Silva Branwen, and after I visited Salem and Neopolitan's early birthday party, it was still going to be a couple of weeks, at least before the beach party at Menagerie, so I went to work on my personal weapon. After using Soul Archive on both Salem and the current Ozma, I now have an idea of how to perform enchantments on weapons and other items, which I will be applying to my weapon, along with the data I gathered on the experimental tech I invented back at Atlas. An interesting thing I have learned is that platinum is highly reactive to both Aura and Magic, making it the best material to form an alloy suited to the weapon I have in mind.

I went with a combination of tungsten, titanium, and platinum to form the alloy that would make up most of my weapon while outfitting it with Aura Projector, Aura Projectile, and Aura Generator tech to make it a lethal and versatile weapon. After working out the desirable formula for the alloy to get what I wanted out of my weapon, I went to drawing up rough drafts and figuring out the magical enchantments. I tried to push my weapon to another level further. Aside from the standard increase in durability and sharpness with enchantments, I also plan to add an auto-repair feature plus a blood-binding seal to ensure others can't use it.

Unlike Ozma and Salem, I have a few ideas from anime, novels, and comics to increase the number of enchantments on my weapon they never considered without overloading it on Magic. I felt giddier and giddier at what I was constructing as I tested my ideas and the viability of the final product of my weapon. The nearest comparison to what I was building was the Sword of Destruction, but there was still a wide gap between the two. However, if I succeed in constructing my weapon to my specifications, then it will easily outclass high-yield Dust bombs like the one Tindick tried to use on Mantle in terms of utility and destruction.

I used the Staff of Creation to call out Ambrosius, a muscular blue-green man similar to Jinn with gold chains wrapped around his torso, to serve as a second opinion on my weapon design. He was more than happy to help me in terms of advice and suggestions. While time was stopped, I used that time to run every test under the sun to figure out what would and would not work. If I had to guess, it should've taken several months to even years to actualize my weapon in all its terror and glory in function, but with the spirit of the Staff advising me and allowing me to abuse the time-stop features of the Relic.

I had finally finished my weapon, and I grinned at my masterpiece, not that anyone would ever know, considering the number of cloaking implements I applied to hide what it could do from the curious. Ambrosius admired my work and told me.

"You're either a genius or a complete madman making this weapon. What will you name it?"

I considered the spirit of the Staff's question for a moment and thought of a name that would fit it in a way since it was my weapon.

" Snærkló."

I tapped into my bits and pieces of Old Norse and felt it was appropriate without being overly pretentious or cringe-worthy. I admired the weapon in front of me, it was like an axe, sword, and spear got together and had a baby. The icy white polearm levitated as I took in my handiwork; it had a long ax blade that extended like a sword with an obsidian black edge, making it a weapon designed to cleave into enemies. I grabbed it by its 5-foot-long shaft, and it practically hummed at my touch. Hopefully, I will never have to use its full power, but I won't hold my breath. This weapon is my ultimatum to my enemies, regardless of who they may be.

I turned to the spirit of the Lamp and thanked him for his advice and suggestions.

" Thank you, Ambrosius, for everything."

" No thanks needed; this was a fun project even though I didn't have a direct hand in making this, Snærkló here. Do call me up again if you plan on making something more interesting than a floating city."

" Certainly, Ambrosius."

The spirit of the Staff returned to the Relic and started back up again. Now what to do until the beach party?

***

Salem sat on her throne, contemplating Silva's words about her curse and her marriage with Ozma. She acknowledged that she would outlive her daughter and even her ex-husband would expire at some point if they had not fought one another, and she would be alone until Ozma returned with a different face, again and again. Every family the witch would start anew with the wizard would eventually meet its end, and even if her daughters began families of their own, they would grow old and wither until death claimed them.

While Salem was serious about replacing humanity and the faunus with her offspring when she learned her four daughters were born with Magic from her union with Ozma, she saw the complications after she put more and more thought into what could and would happen if she followed that path. There was little doubt in her mind that her descendants would rebel against her for one reason or another, especially if they followed her ex-husband's ideology. It depressed Salem to know she would either put them down by her own hand or stand aside to let them have what they wanted.

The witch then thought about the pure sorrow she felt when she realized that her four little girls had died because of her and Ozma fighting. The guilt she still feels from having her daughters die from the crossfire haunts her from time to time. Salem will never forgive herself for her hand in her daughters' deaths, and as her mind wandered, a Seer appeared in front of her, and Hazel's voice came through.

" Your grace, I have my report."

The witch didn't react at first until Hazel called out again.

" Your grace?"

" Apologies, Hazel, I was lost in thought. Report."

Salem shook herself out of her stupor, and the giant gave his report.

" I have managed to acquire the interest in two Atlesian scientists, Fran Stein and Hogg Ticker, but they are hesitant to commit."

" That is fine. There is no rush. Hazel, take your time in convincing them."

" As you wish."

Salem sent the Seer away with a wave of her hand as she returned to her thoughts about what to do in the future and the what-ifs of the past.

***

It was just another day for Pyrrha Nikos as she practiced at her usual spot after school in one of Argus's parks. A thrust of Milo followed by a shield bash of Akouo, then a slash of her javelin. The polite spartan practiced until she built up a sweat in the winter cold, and her Aura kept her warm, then took a small break to rehydrate herself. As Pyrrha rested, a dark portal appeared before her, and she knew who was coming through. Silva came through the doorway with a pale white polearm that drew the polite spartan's eye as it was beautiful and unusual.

Pyrrha greeted the snow leopard faunus with a friendly smile.

" Hello~. What brings you to Argus, Silva?"

" I was hoping for a spar against you with my new weapon."

" It would be my pleasure. What is its name?"

" Snærkló. It loosely translates to Snow Claw."

For some reason, the polite spartan felt something was special about the weapon in her acquaintance's hands, well paws, but couldn't quite put her finger on why she felt that. The two stood apart from one another, and Silva set a timer on his Scroll to use as a start signal in 30 seconds and he called out to Pyrrha.

" You ready?"

The polite Spartan smiled as she took her stance and replied.

" Ready!"

The snow leopard faunus got into position, and soon, the timer rang. Pyrrha charged with her shield held high, and Silva immediately triggered one tech function in Snærkló, it projected a massive blade made of Aura, and he swung as the polite spartan was within his range. Pyrrha managed to hold her ground as she was being forced back in the clash as her shield met the blade Aura. She grits her teeth and then finds that there is no more resistance, and Silva gets close as he swings his polearm with it clad in arcs of electricity.

The polite spartan raises her shield to block and readies to counterattack with her javelin, but when the weapons meet, she is literally shocked as electricity runs through her shield to her body. The next moment Pyrrha was sent skidding back as her posture broke from suddenly getting zapped, and the snow leopard faunus closed the distance and then swung his polearm overhead with the blade buzzing from vibrations. The polite spartan thrust her javelin to clash against her opponent's weapon, and when the two met, Pyrrha felt her Aura reserves drain rapidly as the high-speed vibrations ate through the Aura cladding her weapon.

The polite spartan quickly disengaged and fell back as she had her javelin shift into its rifle form, and Silva used another tech feature of his weapon to send a flying slash of Aura at her that took the form of a large black Aura shuriken. Pyrrha ducked and rolled to change her position and fired a few shots at the snow leopard faunus, but he raised his Aura projection to block the shots and then extended its range to strike the polite spartan from a distance. Pyrrha avoided direct clashes and focused on mid to long-range fighting.

The polite spartan weaved through the increased range attacks of Silva and fired shot after shot from her rifle. Some hits, but others were either dodged or blocked, but that didn't discourage Pyrrha as she enjoyed the pressure of fighting someone stronger than her as it allowed her to learn where she needed to improve and what height she could reach through her efforts. After several minutes of high-intensity fighting, the polite spartan felt winded as her stamina continued to drain from her. Seeing this, Silva casually asked her.

" Want to call it a day?"

" Sure."

Pyrrha collapsed on her butt and was breathing heavily. The snow leopard faunus grinned at the polite spartan and told her.

" You've improved."

" Thanks, but you didn't use any of your Semblances so I got a lot to work on if I want you to fight me without holding back."

Pyrrha had no idea she was facing arguably one of the strongest people in Remnant, and Silva didn't feel the need to inform her of that just yet. The snow leopard faunus extended his paw toward the polite spartan to help her up and she took his paw and was pulled up to her feet. Silva then asked Pyrrha.

" By the way, Pyrrha, I was wondering if you had any plans for this Winter Break."

" Nothing set yet aside from participating in the Regional Cup. Do you have something in mind?"

The snow leopard faunus smiled as he invited the polite spartan to his plans for this upcoming Winter Break.